Art. Culture. Issue 20 Antiquities. June 2018 Natural history. From the ground up In this issue A word from the Director, David Ellis

After years of planning, the In addition to being a fine example Pantheon,’ Hathor’s acquisition, via 2 News 24 The Bunyip in Balranald construction of the Chau Chak of its type, the net connects us to the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Wrapped in folklore, the peculiar Wing Museum on University Avenue the excitement of late 19th and early generosity of a Sydney benefactor 3 Towards a new museum skull found on the banks of has finally started, signalled by the 20th century Egyptology, and most Josiah Mullens, is tracked by Sandra Construction of the new Chau the Murrumbidgee River is still colourful hoardings erected around specifically to the French Egyptologist, Gordon, Mullens’s great, great grand- Chak Wing Museum has begin. inspiring conversations. the site featuring images of museum Gaston Maspero, one of the most daughter and a PhD candidate in the objects. The ground was officially colourful characters in Egypt’s Department of Archaeology. 4 Maspero's beaded net 27 The Nicholson's Egyptian 34 Raising the roof ‘broken’ at a small ceremony in June colonial history. A generous bequest has enabled Aphrodite The journey of an unassuming and the builders, FDC, now occupy Other stories include new public art us to acquire an extraordinary Meet the weightiest Nicholson object from Roman London to the the site. The net is from the period and inspired by Indigenous language, our Egyptian beaded funerary net. resident: our four-tonne granite Nicholson Museum. of the kind that once would have preparation of wonderful Pacific capital of the goddess Hathor. Designed by Sydney-based shrouded the Nicholson mummy, textiles for longevity and display, and 7 Measuring stars 35 A singular museum architects Johnson Pilton Walker, Mer-Neith-it-es. The recent focus of a fishy French connection ... We hope An exciting new acquisition from 30 The French connection Paul Donnelly visits the Musée de the new museum is scheduled to a segment on ABC TV’s 7.30, the story you enjoy the June issue of Muse. the School of Physics reflects two How did six jars of rare fish la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris, open in mid‑2020. You can follow of the ‘excavation’ and scanning of unique astronomical instruments. specimens find their way to the the latest in his series. progress of the construction on our Mer-Neith-it-es and her cedar coffin David Ellis Macleay Museum? website: went global. The 7100 beads found Director, Museums and Cultural 10 GARABARA: old knowledges, 39 Making history sydney.edu.au/museums during that excavation will benefit Engagement new learnings 32 Seeing poetry See what our guests and staff, from comparison with our recent An artwork for the entrance of a Lucia Marcucci's Nove Stanze and even some of our objects, This issue features stories of acquisition. new University of Sydney building, is a welcome addition to our have been up to. benefaction, some recent and by Indigenous artist, Robert collection of Italian Concrete some from the past, all of which In this issue of Muse, we also learn Andrew, will give a material and Visual Poetry. 40 Find your muse continue to expand and improve the of a multi-generational passion presence to forgotten histories. For your diary: our upcoming University’s inspiring collections. for the Nicholson collection, told events and programs. through the tale of one of our most 13 Pacific textiles A generous bequest by Morgan celebrated and unquestionably most The Macleay has embarked on Evan Hughes, a long-standing heavy objects, Hathor, the four‑tonne a project to conserve, rehouse Friend of the Nicholson Museum, red‑granite Egyptian capital. and digitise Pacific textiles. has enabled us to develop the Poetically (if mistakenly) described Egyptian collection by purchasing an by the Sydney Morning Herald in 1889 16 Up close with Pacific fibre art extraordinary beaded funerary net. as the ‘Aphrodite of the Egyptian Members of the intercultural group WeAve Parramatta share their knowledge on textile art.

Sydney University Museums Education and Public Programs Muse edited by Luke Parker. Comprising the Macleay Museum, To book a school excursion, an adult education 19 Romantic yet modern Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery tour or a University heritage tour This edition contains names and images of people +61 2 9351 8746 who have died. We acknowledge that, for some Spanish artist Francisco de The Macleay Museum and the University Art [email protected] people and communities, these may cause distress Goya's paired engravings explore Gallery are now closed as we prepare for the and sadness. Where possible, cultural permission opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Macleay Museum to publish has been sought. contrasts in light and dark. Enquiries: The Nicholson Museum remains open: +61 2 9036 5253 Produced by Marketing and Communications, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and [email protected] the University of Sydney, May 2018. 18/7136 21 Between Olympus and earth the first Saturday of every month, 12 to 4pm ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 Greek and Roman theatre was the Closed on public holidays. Nicholson Museum CRICOS 00026A In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle vehicle for interplay between the General admission is free. +61 2 9351 2812 Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) real world and the godly realms. +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) is a globally recognised certification Become a fan on Facebook [email protected] overseeing all fibre sourcing standards. and follow us on Twitter. This provides guarantees for the sydney.edu.au/museums University Art Gallery consumer that products are made Enquiries of woodchips from well‑managed forests and other controlled sources Above, and cover: benefaction in action. Matthys Top right: Decorative element from a terracotta Sydney University Museums Administration +61 2 9351 6883 with strict environmental, economical Gerber, Ultra, 2000, donated to the University Art brazier, depicting a theatre mask of a New Comedy +61 2 9351 2274 [email protected] and social standards. Collection by Pamela Hansford through the Australian courtesan character. See story page 21 +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) Government's Cultural Gifts Program 2003, UA2003.27 [email protected]

1 News

Researchers re-colour coffin Although the wooden coffin of Mer-Neith-it-es (NMR.29) was once intricately decorated, it has faded to a dull brown. The Nicholson Museum’s Mummy Project has assembled a team of experts to recolour a high-resolution digital model of the coffin for display. The team recently met with Egyptologist Dr Marie Vandenbeusch, who was visiting from the British Museum. Researchers include scientists using spectroscopy to identify ancient pigments, scientific illustrators using D-Stretch to bring up ghosted imagery, and Egyptologists reading the hieroglyphics. The recoloured model will be displayed with the coffin in a Digital rendering of the level dedicated Mummy Room in the Chau Chak Wing Museum. 3 galleries, courtesy of JPW

Below, from left to right: Wendy Reade and Jamie Fraser, Marie Vandenbeusch (British Museum), Alayne Alvis, Luke O’Donnell (Newcastle), Boyo Ockinga (Macquarie University), Bernadette Drabsch and Andrew Howells (Newcastle), Michelle Wood (Sydney Analytical), photo by Thérèse Harrison Towards a new museum

The mother of all mummy discoveries In March 2018 the Nicholson team began the – Paul Donnelly gives an update on the Chau Chak Wing Museum. second stage of a project to scan the linen- wrapped ibis mummies in our collection. CT scans were made of the specimens, in The process of transforming plans for the Chau Chak The new museum is scheduled to open mid- collaboration with Helen Laurendet, Sydney Wing Museum into a reality took a major step forward at 2020. After breaking ground in June, the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and Zoe the end of February with advice that the Development 22-month construction phase has begun. This Williams and Veronika Tatarinoff, Hybrid Theatre Application had been approved. This enabled the will be followed by three months of exhibition Unit. Initial analysis suggests that one of the University to engage a building contractor and, for the fabrication and object installation. Having a ibis packages actually contains two juveniles. first time, confidently predict an opening date. more definite opening date has given a buzz to This project was reported in The Guardian and museum staff as the much-anticipated bringing the Daily Telegraph, with Candace Richards The successful contractor is FDC, a well-established together of the three university collections interviewed about the significance of the ibis to major construction company that, in addition to many advances closer. the Egyptian god Thoth. Learn more at award-winning buildings, is currently constructing sydney.edu.au/museums/research the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building at the Designed by architects JPW, the new museum University of Sydney. will be transformative for the collections. Visitors will experience expansive gallery spaces, including a 6.5 m high temporary gallery, three Below: an aerial plan of the campus indicating the CCWM site. tertiary-level object-based learning studios, a Unique post takes research in a new direction schools education room, an auditorium, and Thérèse Harrison recently started with us as the Professional a licensed café overlooking sculptures in the Officer for Museums Analyses. This unique scientific post is funded Chau Chak Wing landscape to Lake Northam in Victoria Park. by the University’s Core Research Facility – Sydney Analytical – to Museum expand the research use of non-destructive technologies, including site We look forward to sharing more milestones vibrational spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence, into new research with you in the coming months. areas. Thérèse is part of an established team at Sydney Analytical that has a wealth of knowledge and broad-ranging experience in The Quadrangle Dr Paul Donnelly is Associate Director, the investigation of cultural artefacts and specimens. Exploring Museum Content. the diversity of collections in Sydney University Museums through state-of-the-art instrumentation is sure to raise some challenging Fisher Library questions and reveal information about the production and use of our specimens and objects in the past.

2 3 Egyptian funerary art often depicted Although beaded nets are Gaston Maspero. One of the most Osiris, god of the underworld, draped represented in many museum colourful characters to have strutted Maspero’s beaded net in a beaded cape. A particularly collections, these are usually poorly across the pages of Egypt’s colonial splendid example is shown on the preserved fragments of loosely history, Maspero was initially sent to – underside of the mummy board from strung beads. In contrast, this newly Egypt in 1880 to establish the Institut the coffin for the woman Meruah in acquired net is striking both for its français d’archéologie orientale in the Nicholson (see image on page 6). size (59 x 23 cm) and for the variety of Cairo. The following year, the Egyptian During the 25th and 26th Dynasties beads used. The panel is dominated Khedive appointed Maspero Director A generous bequest by Morgan Evans Hughes has enabled (around 744–525 BC), embalmers by turquoise-coloured tubular faience of the Cairo Museum, during which the Nicholson Museum to expand its Egyptian collection recalled this tradition by laying large beads, and is fringed by double rows time he conducted his famous by acquiring an extraordinary beaded funerary net. beaded nets over a mummy within of minute blue, green, brown and excavations at the Sphinx. the coffin, thus placing the deceased yellow disc beads. —> Jamie Fraser explains its significance. under the protection of Osiris himself. Nets were often elaborately woven to The most fascinating aspect of the incorporate stylised faces of the dead piece is its acquisition history. The or powerful apotropaic figures such net was originally acquired by the The newly acquired beaded net, Nicholson Museum, NM2018.132 as the sons of Horus. celebrated French Egyptologist,

4 5 Although he returned to France in A depiction of with several other items from the Osiris, god of the 1886, Maspero was soon recalled to underworld, on the established Bouillon Bey collection. Egypt to take the post of Director of underside of the mummy board from the Service of Antiquities between within the coffin A generous bequest by Morgan for Meruah. Note the 1899–1914, making him the most beaded cape draped Evan Hughes enabled the museum influential Egyptologist of his day. across his shoulders, to purchase the net in 2018. Mr Nicholson Museum, NMR.27.2 Hughes and his partner were It is hardly surprising that it was Friends of the Nicholson Museum, Maspero who introduced a young and regular visitors to its galleries. Howard Carter to George Herbert, Upon his death in 1988, Mr Hughes 5th Earl of Carnarvon, when Lord left a bequest for the purchase of Carnarvon sought his advice for an Egyptian artefacts, reflecting his expert to lead a new expedition to passion for Egyptology. the Valley of the Kings. The acquisition of the net honours It was probably during his Mr Hughes’ interests, and adds directorship of the Cairo Museum considerable lustre to the Nicholson that Maspero acquired the beaded collection. As featured in a report by net, although it is unclear at which ABC TV’s 7.30, the museum recently site he found it or, more likely, excavated the mixed remains of a from which dealer it was obtained. mummified individual inside the 26th However, Maspero did not keep Dynasty coffin of Mer‑Neith‑it-es. the net for long, gifting or selling it to Charles Octave Bouillon Bey, These excavations yielded an engineer associated with the a staggering 7100 beads of flourishing Cairo sugar industry different materials, sizes and and a prominent member shapes from a beaded net torn of French society in Egypt apart by robbers seeking the during the 1880s. amulets and jewels wrapped with the mummy beneath. When Bouillon Bey returned The newly acquired net to France, he took a large provides a striking illustration collection of antiquities with of what these beads once him, included Maspero’s comprised, and will be beaded net. The net was displayed alongside the kept in the family until 2007, Mer-Neith-it-es coffin in a when it appeared in an auction dedicated Mummy Room in house in Bergerac along the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Measuring stars – Jan Brazier reflects on an exciting new acquisition from the School of Physics from two unique Dr Jamie Fraser is astronomical instruments. Senior Curator of the Nicholson Museum. The article draws on The beam splitter, now transferred to the Macleay Museum, research by Dr Conni Lord was at the heart of SUSI, where the two beams were brought and Chris Jones. together on the optical table. From the beam splitter, emerging beams were then dispersed through the spectrograph prisms and relayed to the photon‑counting detectors.

6 7 Imagine a 640 m diameter telescope that could measure The instrument was closed down at the end of 1974. When the thickness of a human hair at a distance of 100 km. A a successor instrument was proposed, it was originally ‘telescope’ with such a resolving power was built in the planned to be a larger version of NSII. However, with late 1980s by the University’s School of Physics. Known advances in optics, lasers and electronics, the design as the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI), it was changed back to the approach of the Michelson was located near Narrabri in northern NSW. Rather than a interferometer. After the construction of a successful traditional telescope, SUSI had a north-south array of 13 prototype, the new instrument known as SUSI opened stations strung out along a 640 m-long baseline in a field. in 1991. Able to measure stars of various types, allowing fundamental properties of temperature, size and mass to Each station housed a steerable ‘siderostat’ containing a be determined, SUSI played a key role in the development 20 cm diameter flat mirror that reflected light from a star of modern stellar interferometry in various similar into a periscope and along an evacuated pipe into the main instruments around the world. optical laboratory. Light from two stations was combined on a main optical table and an interference signal detected, Few parts of the NSII remain, but with the retirement but only after an ‘optical path compensator’ had equalised of SUSI the opportunity arose for the Macleay Museum the path lengths traversed by the light from the star via the to work with School of Physics staff to identify SUSI two stations. The interference signal encoded information components to be retained, including the long optical about the size of the star. path compensator. The objects will allow the complex story of these two unique astronomical instruments to be This was not the first instrument to measure the tiny disks understood, and help tell the lead role of the University’s presented by distant stars. The angular diameters of stars School of Physics in international stellar astrophysics. had first been measured in 1920 by American physicist Albert A Michelson. In Michelson’s interferometer, starlight We wish to thank John O’Byrne, Peter Tuthill was collected by two small mirrors mounted on top of a and Michael Hrynevych for their assistance. conventional telescope, with the light combined by the optics of the telescope. But technical limitations meant Jan Brazier is Curator, History Collections, that only a few giant stars could be measured. Macleay Museum.

The field languished until a new approach was developed under the leadership of Robert Hanbury Brown and his team in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. With the support of the school’s head, Harry Messel, they constructed the Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer (NSII), which measured the angular diameters of 32 hot View of SUSI’s optical stars and established the temperature scale for stars path compensator, now hotter than the sun. transferred to the Macleay Museum, seen on its rails, photo: School of Physics Above: the NSII reflectors, 7 m in diameter, each consisted of a mosaic of 252 small hexagonal mirrors creating a parabolic mirror. They moved on mounts around a 188 m diameter circular railway track so they could be separated over large distances. The instrument was made in England and assembled in Australia. Three of these mirror panels are now held by the Macleay Museum, photo: School of Physics

Left: view of SUSI from the north end of the 640 m baseline. It was located at CSIRO’s Paul Wild Observatory near Narrabri, NSW. The white enclosures held individual siderostats.

8 9 Left: digital rendering of Robert Andrew’s GARABARA, at the entrance to the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building, image courtesy of UAP

Above: Artist Robert Andrew (left) and Richard Stride, from UAP, inspect a test of the tile treatment

Andrew, who is based in the remarkably productive department of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University has described how urban Indigenous origins inform his art:

I am a descendant of the Yawuru people from the West Kimberly region of North Western, Western Australia or more specifically the Broome area … Mum and Dad moved from the West Kimberly region to Perth and this is where I was born and raised. Suffice it to say, as a family Today, Indigenous artists are transforming unit, we had lost all connection with Indigenous culture GARABARA our ideas about place by giving a material and until I was 13 years old I didn’t know that part of my presence to forgotten or invisible histories. history … My artwork investigates what it means to be a old knowledges, new learnings Sydney’s creamy-coloured sandstone cliffs contemporary urban Indigenous artist whilst looking at the and rock platforms were once covered in vast particular histories of urban Aborigines and attempts to galleries of rock art, made for thousands of coherently bring these stories forward toward a process – years, now partially lost or obscured, along of recognition, understanding and healing. with the meanings of the great ceremonial Ann Stephen introduces a new public art commission, grounds, erased by more than two centuries The new commission, his first exterior work, continues recently unveiled on campus. of settlement. Instead, the sandstone is largely Andrew’s fascination with Indigenous languages. To date, identified with colonial architecture, like the artist has constructed computer-programmed kinetic Edmund Thomas Blacket’s Great Hall with its machines that inscribe walls with words from his Yawuru neo-Tudor Gothic edifice designed in the 1850s, language, using ochre and an electro-mechanically- now part of the University’s Quadrangle and operated water gun ingeniously repurposed from The cultures and histories of Indigenous Australia that were believed cultural precinct. 3D printer components. He explains: to be destined for extinction at the time of Federation in 1901 have not It is these repressed and overlaid histories that Where 3D printing is an additive process I’ve substituted merely resurfaced, they have moved from the periphery of Australia’s inform a new art commission by Robert Andrew, the original head of the printer with a fuel injector national imagination to its centre, where they rightly belong. an Indigenous artist selected to create a work powered by a driver that squirts controlled amounts of for the entrance of the new Faculty of Arts water in a predetermined sequence which corrupts what Mark McKenna, ‘Moment of Truth’, Quarterly Essay, 2018 and Social Sciences building on Science Road. the machine was initially designed to do. —>

10 11 In one earlier work, a layer of red ochre, sourced from The crucial key for the current work is Yawuru in Western Australia, is stripped away to expose derived from Professor Troy’s earlier research the word ‘Buru’ (Yawuru for ‘country’). on the languages of the Sydney region, as Andrew explains: In developing the brief for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences commission, as part of the University’s Wingara Corroboree has its origins in the Sydney Mura design principles for Indigenous engagement, language and was originally transcribed into Andrew consulted with a number of local Indigenous an English interpretation in William Dawes’ groups and individuals, including Nathan Moran of the note books. Jaky [Professor Troy] has compiled Pacific textiles Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, the art a list of words and their translations from curator Hetti Perkins and Professor Jakelin Troy, Director, early colonial sources and local knowledge. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research at the Corroboree (Car-rib-ber-re), Garabara, – University. Andrew recalls, “In the early conversations with Korobra has its origins in the local Indigenous Hetti, one word kept coming into focus –‘Corroboree’. language of the Sydney area. The word The word ‘Corroboree’ has a universal ‘understanding’ Garabara and all its known and unknown across Australia and internationally.” meanings look at knowledge that is continually At the end of 2017, the University Museums began accessed, uncovered, enacted/re-enacted, read and interpreted, often displaced and a project to conserve, rehouse and digitise the re‑placed, always moving and always growing. Pacific textiles held in the Macleay collection.

The eight letters of GARABARA span the external Chris Jones explains the process. façade facing onto Science Avenue. Each letter is formed from an organic wind-carved pattern creating the appearance of an eroded, almost illegible text. To create these surfaces, the artist made photographic studies of the sandstone cliffs around Bondi, which were turned into 3D models using photogrammetry, then machine‑etched to form the shape of letters and sandblasted into granite panels. Bronze and steel pins, inserted within the text, will oxidise and cause rust stains, recalling the internal brown markings on sandstone formed by iron-rich water seeping through the stone. Such bleeds over time will gradually course down and partially erode the letters, representing – in Andrew’s words – “old knowledges and new learnings overlaying, revealing, altering and interacting with each other.”

Dr Ann Stephen is Senior Curator, University Art Collection.

Left: Robert Andrew, Salatasi (barkcloth) made in Wallis Transitional text – and Futuna, transferred from the BURU 2016, aluminum, Department of Anthropology at the ochres, oxides, water University of Sydney 1965–79, and electromechanical Macleay Museum, ET87.6.5 controllers, 270 x 240 x 60 cm, courtesy of the artist

12 13 Many of the Pacific textiles in the Macleay Once the textiles were clean and flat, we Right: Collections collection had not been seen for some time were able to photograph them. Again, size Officer Madeleine Sneddon (right) because they were not stored in an accessible was a challenge. We created a large platform and volunteer way. In consultation with visiting Pacific Islander to support the textiles with a white paper Louise Pulling move a barkcloth experts on the best ways to store and work backing. The platform was on a slight angle and from Tonga into the photographer stood above the platform position for with the textiles, curators and collection photography management staff decided on strategies on a mezzanine level in order to achieve the for the project. correct distance.

The first step was to unroll or unfold the textiles Following the photography, the textiles were and allow them to relax. Many kinds of barkcloth, rehoused – some onto rolls, others into boxes. such as Samoan siapo and Tongan ngatu, are The photographs were added to labels attached made as gifts, cut up following presentation to the roll or box to enable easy identification. and stored away. While some textiles have now been carefully re-rolled, for others the folds and The collection is now stored in a method that creases have been purposefully maintained as will better preserve the objects and make part of their history. them more accessible for researchers and community. The images created will also assist The mats woven from pandanas, coconut or researchers and reduce the need for handling banana fibre strips needed extensive flattening of the objects, many of which are quite fragile. out and relaxing. Next, cleaning of the surfaces was performed to remove thin layers of Chris Jones is Assistant Collections Manager, embedded dust and to mend any rips or tears. Sydney University Museums. This step was a logistical challenge as some of the textiles are large, with some measuring more than six metres long. The process required a lot of flat table space and juggling of objects between shelves and tables.

Right: Masi kesa (barkcloth panel) made by artist Lia Usa in the Lau Island Group, Fiji, prize winner at the first Pacific Arts Festival,1972, collected by Beth Dean and Victor Carell, Macleay Museum, ET86.35.100

14 15 Left: Seini Huakau Rebecca Conway discusses the (right) closely examined and explained details of Tongan ngatu production importance of direct community and design to the group engagement with collections. and museum staff

Below: Ngatu (barkcloth) with Royal crests and symbols made in Tonga, donated by Dr P Searle, Department of Agronomy and Horticultural Up close with Science, 1984, Macleay Museum, ET84.159 Pacific fibre art –

The textile and fibre art made by people across the Pacific region includes barkcloth, a felted material made from layering and beating the inner bark of the paper Mulberry tree (commonly Broussonetia papyrifera); mats and baskets, commonly made from the leaves of pandanus, banana and coconut palms; and twined plant-fibre string used to make bags, nets and other forms. Collections in museums reveal the creativity, skill and artistry of the mostly female makers of such materials.

Despite the influx of cheap, readily available, mass- produced textiles, Indigenous fibre art‑forms continue to be made throughout the Pacific, a testament to the centrality of their role in Pacific cultures and to people’s enjoyment and sense of accomplishment in their creation.

Digital photography and databases provide essential forms of access to cultural collections in museums. However, for cultural experts such as artists and makers, an image cannot replace the knowledge revealed with closer examination, including the physical touch and sometimes even the smell of the objects.

In November 2017 members of WeAve Parramatta, an intercultural group that connects peoples through textile art, visited the Macleay Museum collections to view a large selection of barkcloth, mats and other woven objects, and to share their knowledge with each other and with curatorial and collection management staff. Above: Mure Lilje (right) and Joyce Robertson (left) both commented on how the Members of the group generously shared information maker’s individuality and on production and use of materials, and advised on expression can be seen in the textiles. Mure also traditional forms of storage. WeAve’s visit and other pointed out similarities between patterns on bilums ongoing consultations have informed the conservation Right: Members of and traditional tattoos. and storage strategies for the collection, along with our WeAve Parramatta; guest speakers curatorial practice. front row, (left to right) Seini Huakau, Mure Lilje Rebecca Conway is Curator, Ethnography, and Joyce Robertson Macleay Museum. (in bilum hat) Romantic yet modern –

Isabelle Pech takes a close look at the contrasts in Francisco de Goya's paired engravings.

It is impossible to remain unaffected by Spanish artist Recent research has shed new light on this less well- Francisco de Goya’s works. His grotesque scenes and known group of etchings, which are outstanding in terms figures speak of the social and political climate of the of stylistic features and subject matter. The website late 18th and early 19th centuries in Spain and Europe Goya en el Prado (from the Prado Museum in Madrid) more broadly. They reference the Enlightenment spirit, categorises them as ‘Últimos caprichos’ (the ‘Last the Napoleonic wars and the horrors of the Inquisition. caprichos’), a reference to Goya’s first series of prints, This tumultuous historical period is still subject to many Los Caprichos. cultural debates and controversies, issues that lie at the heart of Goya’s art. Based on two albums of drawings, probably Goya’s last albums, the engravings are paired and depict three A total of 290 engravings and lithographs have been subjects: a single figure on a swing, a young woman, and a identified as the work of Goya. The University Art smuggler wrapped in his cloak. The back and front of one Collection has 12 prints ranging from 1798 to the mid-19th copperplate was used to create two versions of the same century. One was gifted by an anonymous donor in 1993; subject: one on a light background and the other on a the other 11 were donated by the late Roddy Meagher AO dark. Goya particularly appreciated black for its expressive QC in 2011. quality, and the aquatint technique, producing tonal effects, was the perfect medium for him; he used it for The period of these prints marks the second phase of most of his prints. the artist’s life and career, for which the turning point was a grave illness that left him permanently deaf in 1793. The analytical approach required to assess these image This time of personal turmoil gave birth to a new vision, pairs can be compared to the game in which participants a strange imaginary world, based on Spanish popular are asked to identify minor differences between images. It culture, superstitions, and the horrors of war. is particularly difficult with the depiction of majas.

Among the 12 prints are five etchings from the famous The subject is the same: a full-length portrait of a young series Los Caprichos (1799) and one from Los Desastres de woman, standing in a sophisticated three-quarter view, la Guerra (circa 1810–15). The collection also encompasses with her hands on her hips, her back slightly arched, six of the seven known engravings produced at the end of and one leg stretched out and slightly bent, creating a Goya’s life and career in Bordeaux, between 1826 and 1828. provocative demeanour. —>

Francisco de Goya, Maja sobre fondo oscuro (Maja on a dark ground), 1826–28 etching and aquatint, donated by the Hon. RP Meagher through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2011, University Art Collection, UA2011.43

19 In both prints the woman wears a white dress, embroidered “Majos and majas simultaneously represented Real life, the theatre and mythology were on the bottom edge with flowers. Her eyes are in shadow, a link to the past and embodied contemporary created by a black shawl, also called a mantilla, a traditional Spain by honouring and renovating Spanish inextricably linked in ancient Greece and Rome, outfit that Spanish women still wear on special occasions. practices and by wearing supposedly traditional as Candace Richards explains. Little room is left for facial expression; the emphasis is on the garb, often in conjunction with new trends,” engaging pose, rather than the face. writes historian Tara Zanardi.

Rather than portraits, the engravings are standardised This polarity is depicted by Goya whose depictions of maja, a young Spanish lower-class woman who, romanticised imagery of majas goes beyond with her male counterpart, known as majo, were fixtures stereotypes. Both prints portray some of Spanish society (especially in Madrid) in the second half ambivalence, mirroring Goya’s unclear attitude, of the 18th century. At that time they were admired and torn between Enlightenment thought and an imitated for their worldly manner and dress. The highest attachment to his people. strata of Spanish society held them in great respect, as they epitomised ‘the pure Castilian blood and spirit’. Recent investigations have revealed that Maja on a light ground was engraved after the artist’s Art historian Mary Louise Krumrine describes the majo death, by another hand. Although close to a as a “fashionable dandy of the poor with a marked dislike drawing of a maja that Goya produced at the for honest work”. This categorisation is emphasised by art end of his career in Bordeaux, the etching is historian Stephen Eisenman, who describes the picturesque similar to other 19th-century interpretations characters as “proletarian aristocrats, or plebeian nobles”. In of his works. As German art historian August other words, they are individuals on the margins of society, L Mayer noticed, it displays a more refined and Goya identified with them. treatment and may have been made by a French artist in Spain or a Spanish artist with experience in French aesthetics.

Maja on a dark ground, the rougher and darker variant, presents characteristics more appropriate to Goya’s technique and design. For example, there are barely discernible demons that surround the young woman, who looks more concerned and provocative than her equivalent on the light ground. Absent in the drawing, these demons may be a residue of a previous design, given that copperplates could be used several times for different compositions. Demons are, nevertheless, a recurrent motif in Goya's repertoire of marginal characters from Spanish popular culture.

Whether made by another hand, these engravings possess an undeniable and unique strangeness, like the original Los Caprichos, and generate both disturbing feelings and exquisite pleasures. Between Olympus Isabelle Pech is an art historian researching works in the University Art Collection in preparation for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. and earth – Unknown (formerly attributed to Francisco de Goya), Maja sobre fondo claro (Maja on a light ground), mid-19th century, A decorative element from a terracotta brazier, depicting etching and dry-point, donated by the a theatre mask of a New Comedy courtesan character, Hon. RP Meagher through the Australian made in Egypt, 200–100 BC, acquired before 1964, Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2011, Nicholson Museum, NM64.388 University Art Collection, UA2011.40

20 21 Left: red-figure bell krater Over time, the corpus of characters, style of performance Not every representation of a character such depicting Dionysos and an actor in Satyr costume, made and choice of subject matter evolved and new genres of as Papposilenos was related to their theatrical in Paestum, Italy, 350–325 theatre developed. These developments often reflect representation. Discerning between a mythological BC, attributed to the painter Python, donated by the Classical the changes in the political and cultural landscape of the representation and a theatrical representation, which Association 1946, Nicholson Museum, NM47.4 ever-expanding Hellenic world. Material culture around used the myths as source material, relies upon the visual the Mediterranean increasingly drew on theatrical codes and cues worked into the image by ancient artists. Opposite: hollow-cast bronze lamp with mask of Dionysos, subject matter for its decoration. Representations of the made in AD 1–25, excavated from a well (or chamber above) of a masks actors wore to play different character types – On pottery, the architecture of set design, defined Roman house at Hu, Egypt during such as cooks, slaves, old men or women, Papposilenos, costuming and hung masks was often portrayed (some the EEF excavations at Diospolis Parva in Egypt, directed by Dionysos and many more – were frequently sculpted or more subtly than others) to demonstrate a theatrical Sir Flinders Petrie, 1898–99, painted on vases. scene. On this bell krater (page 22, top left), Papposilenos donated by the Egypt Exploration Fund 1900, Nicholson Museum, is represented as an actor playing the part of the aged NM00.182.1-2 In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, household objects, satyr. The artist has clearly defined the cuffs on the arms Below: oil lamp with such as lamps and cooking vessels, were decorated and legs of the character’s costume. In the background, an reconstructed spout and handle. made in Knidos, Turkey, 200– with these masks. In the Nicholson collection is a small actor’s mask, of a slave character with wrinkled features, 100 BC, acquired before 1964, Nicholson Museum, NM62.693 terracotta mask (pictured on page 21), of the courtesan short black hair and a goatee, hangs from an ivy vine. character found in ‘New Comedy’ plays, which was Following the Papposilenos actor is a representation of used to decorate a brazier or a cooking pot that has not Dionysos holding a kantharos (drinking cup) and thyrsos survived. A bronze oil lamp (below), decorated with the (a staff with a pinecone). His naked form and youthful mask worn by actors playing Dionysos, was uncovered unmasked face signal that we are looking at the God during Flinders Petrie’s excavations of the Roman homes Dionysos, not an actor playing the role of the god. and wells at Hu in Egypt. At Knidos (located in southwest Turkey) a variety of lamps were uncovered that depict This mingling of the mythological and the performer masks for the character of Papposilenos, hung between gives us a real insight into the role that theatre played two discs (page 22, bottom). These depictions of hanging in ancient Greek and Roman societies. Theatre was the masks reflect the fate of the real masks that, after being vehicle in which an interplay between the real world and worn in performance, were hung within sanctuaries as the godly realms could occur. Playwrights and actors dedications to Dionysos. took their audience on tragic, comedic and philosophical Some of the most recognisable figures from ancient journeys, encouraging laughter and reflecting on the joys Greek mythology are satyrs, the jovial, comical and often and sorrows of the everyday – all from the comfort of drunken companions of the god Dionysos. Identifiable the escapist realm of Dionysos. from their pointed goat ears and bushy tails, they carry the weapons of revelry: drinking cups, wine kraters, The Nicholson’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman flutes and drums. theatrical artefacts will be the focus of a new display, The Art of Storytelling from 25 July 2018. Of the satyrs, the oldest was Silenus, also known as Papposilenos. Often depicted as an aged character with Candace Richards is the Assistant Curator, wrinkles and white hair, Silenus was the tutor of Dionysos Nicholson Museum. and appears frequently in the comedic tragedies known as Satyr plays. These were invented in 500 BC and were first performed in the annual Athenian theatrical competition that was at the heart of the city-wide festival known as the ‘City Dionysia’. In this competition, a playwright would enter four plays; the first three were tragedies, often thematically linked, and the fourth was the Satyr play.

While drawing on the tropes of tragedy, the Satyr play offered comic relief to round out the set. The performances relied on financing from wealthy citizens and were judged by 10 representatives from the citizenry. Of the hundreds that must have been written, only one complete Satyr play survives: Euripides’ Cyclops.

22 23 Researching the history of Balranald, In 1845, a peculiar skull was a deformed mammal, with Macleay found along the banks of the citing a similar ‘monstrosity’ in his his hometown near the Murrumbidgee River, Murrumbidgee River. At the time of own collection. The Bunyip for him Ryan Kelly learned about an interesting the discovery, settlers and Aboriginal was simply a creature of folklore. people thought the skull belonged local event, which had caused widespread to the fearsome Bunyip. Local lore When Uncle Daniel learned of the controversy. His grandfather, Uncle Daniel had it that Bunyip preyed on humans, skull, he told his grandchildren: drowning them in the deep water of “this is something that we always Kelly, a Mutthi/Wemba elder, was curious to their swampy homes. been told about. Because one of find out more. In 2017, the research led them the things we was mindful of was The skull puzzled gentlemen scientists not to go swimming without adult to the Macleay Museum and a meeting in Melbourne, Tasmania and Sydney, supervision […] Don’t go sneaking with Therese Apolonio, who was in the as it was unlike any known Australian off and go swimming on your own mammal. RC Gunn and James Grant, because the Bunyip will get you, see.” final year of her history degree. two Tasmanian naturalists, postulated Here, Daniel Kelly and Therese Apolonio that this was proof of a newly The Bunyip is a significant creature to discovered Australian species. Mutthi Mutthi culture and dreaming tell their stories. – a part of creation. As a child, Uncle In 1847, the skull was deposited at the Daniel was told about it by the old Australian Museum and the public people, how the Bunyip lived in deep was invited to view the "cranium of areas of the Murrumbidgee River, the supposed Bun-Yip". Prominent in places where there was a strong natural scientists John Stewart current. The threat of being caught and William S Macleay dismissed by a Bunyip was enough to keep The Bunyip in Balranald the suggestion of a Bunyip species, Uncle Daniel and his siblings away arguing that the skull belonged to from dangerous areas of the river. – —>

JS Prout illustration, assumed to be of the Murrumbidgee skull, from Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office, open copyright: Trove

24 25 Uncle Daniel was told about other The partnership of a University Aboriginal knowledge traditions which of Sydney history student and an acknowledged the existence of the experienced Mutthi/Wemba elder Left: a red granite column capital depicting Bunyip. Wiradjuri elders also had has had important outcomes, beyond the goddess Hathor, cultural knowledge of the Bunyip, the investigation of the lost skull. For from the Temple of Bastet, Bubastis, circa and could point to areas in the Uncle Daniel: “It’s something I always 900 BC, donated by the river where it lived. had not forgotten about. Stories I was Egypt Exploration Fund, 1889, Nicholson Museum, told from my mother and father and NM2004.557 “He’s a part of our culture and some aunties. They might ha’ did it to heritage that we shouldn’t let fade protect us from wandering away and away,” said Uncle Daniel. “Our swimming where they had fear that children need to know about it we could drown. But no doubt that because our environment and our Bunyip, he existed all right." learning and lifestyle is changing every day. But we need to get a For Therese: “Early settler accounts hold of something … so that we got often underplay the role of Aboriginal In 1889, the University of Sydney it and can last and go on forever. people in history, or misrepresent received a gift of an immense red Not just become a fairytale story.” Aboriginal knowledges. My favourite granite capital, from Bubastis in the Water pools in the Murrumbidgee, photo: Daniel Kelly 2018 part of the project was sending Uncle southern Nile Delta of Egypt. Weighing Daniel hoped the skull could be Danny articles and diary entries from nearly four tonnes, the capital features returned to Country for exhibition the settler archives. We talked about cartouches of King Osorkon II, who in the Balranald Interpretive Centre, what scientists and local pastoralists ruled Egypt in the 9th century BC, and where community members could Working together with their unique had to say about the Bunyip and the dual-heads of the Egyptian goddess go to learn and share traditional points of view, neither Uncle Daniel skull. Uncle Danny would interject to Hathor, described in the Sydney knowledge on the Bunyip. In 2016, nor Therese were able to find the agree or disagree. It was almost as if Morning Herald of 18 June 1889 as the Daniel wrote to the Macleay Museum famous 1847 Bunyip skull, but they we were in conversation with these “Aphrodite of the Egyptian Pantheon”. asking if they held the ‘Bun-Yip’ did uncover new leads. They learned historical figures." skull acquired by the Australian that in August 1847 the skull was sent The Hathor capital was donated by Museum in 1847. Responding to the to the editors of the now defunct Uncle Daniel Kelly is a Mutthi/ the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF) in enquiry, Jude Philp, Senior Curator Australian Medical Journal. It was Wemba elder. Therese Apolonio London “in recognition of the eminent of the Macleay, reported that the then sent to an unnamed museum recently completed a history degree services to the society of Mr. Josiah skull he was looking for had never in Port Philip, where the trail at the University of Sydney. Mullens”. But who was Mullens, and been part of the Macleay collection, currently ends. how did he secure for the Nicholson but was often confused with one Museum what is now one of its most obtained by William S Macleay, impressive and iconic artefacts? on display in the museum. Like the museum’s founder, Sir Charles Nicholson, Josiah Mullens belonged to an elite group of well- educated, wealthy and prominent The Nicholson’s businessmen who played a significant This horse skull and role in the evolution of the city of skin shows the kind Sydney during the 19th century. of cycloptic deformity (fused eyes) that led to Egyptian Aphrodite Born in London in 1826, where his the mistaken identity of the Bunyip. It is father was a clerk in the Court of the specimen William the Chancery, Mullens immigrated Sharp used to refute – the Bunyip’s existence. to Australia in 1852 and was initially Equus ferus caballus, collected November 1841 employed as a gold buyer. Eight years by Dr James Stewart, later, he established his own stock- Hawkesbury River, NSW, Sandra Gordon reflects on a strong family Macleay Museum NHM.45 broking company, Mullens and Co. In connection to the Nicholson Museum – her 1871, he was instrumental in founding great, great-grandfather Josiah Mullens the Sydney Stock Exchange, serving as its chairman from 1874 until his contributed several highly prized artefacts. retirement in 1889. —>

26 27 As well as his business and academic heads with their distinctive cow “left it on the spot, being much too pursuits, Mullens held religion close ears and thick, curled hair. One damaged to be carried away”. to his heart and was a staunch group of larger or ‘Great’ Hathors Congregationalist. With several of his was estimated by Naville to be more In 1889, six boxes, including pottery fellow Congregationalists, Mullens than seven feet high and he believed from Diospolis Parva and a portion was a keen supporter of the EEF in they were designed to be viewed of a mummy case, were transported London where his missionary brother from afar: “Looking at them close to Sydney from the EEF on Mullens’ Joseph was a committee member. by, they seem flat, and destitute of behalf. According to a letter held in Mullens became the Australian expression; whereas at a distance, the fund’s archive, these boxes came secretary of the fund and was listed the features come out with a close to suffering a Raiders of the as a Vice President (Australia) in striking liveliness”. Lost Ark fate when they were left the EEF publications from 1883 to without identification in a shipping 1907. He was also a member of the The colonnaded hall, with its rows office. Fortunately, the University Committee of Management for the of monumental painted Hathor faces became aware of their existence Nicholson Museum from 1902 until and polished lotus buds, must have many months after their arrival. his death in 1915. been an awe-inspiring sight and certainly Bubastis greatly impressed When she first arrived in Sydney in Mullens no doubt personally the Greek historian, Herodotus, 1889, Hathor was placed outside the strengthened his ties to the EEF who wrote an evocative account of Oriental Studies Room because “her when he visited London and took his visit around 450 BC (Herodotus weight was considered too great for an extended trip down the Nile in 2.137, 138). admission into the Nicholson Museum 1891–92. Ultimately, it was his close of Antiquities”. She remained in that association with both institutions that Hathor was not the only important position for more than a hundred assured the museum’s acquisition of contribution to the Nicholson years until she finally took her place Hathor and several other significant Museum on Mullens’ behalf. In inside the museum in 2009. Egyptian artefacts. May 1888, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the EEF had Now, Hathor sits as she once did In 1882, on behalf of the EEF, Swiss donated a head of Rameses II “in at Bubastis, in silent watch over scholar Edouard Naville excavated grateful recognition of the liberal the crowds who come to visit, and at the site of Tel Basta (Bubastis) in support which has been accorded perhaps also as a small tribute to Egypt over three seasons from 1887 to the work of the society by Josiah Josiah Mullens and his contribution to 1889. His finds included a temple Mullens, Esq. of Sydney.” Later that to the Nicholson Museum. with a large hypostyle hall containing year at Bubastis, the lower section of columns of red granite in the form of the Rameses statue was discovered, Sandra Gordon is a PhD candidate in lotus buds and palm leaves. Nearby but, in a lamentable decision for the Department of Archaeology, and were more groups of columns topped the Nicholson Museum, Naville, in the great, great grand-daughter of by capitals depicting painted Hathor his 1891 report revealed that he had Josiah Mullens.

Right: the cartouches of King Osorkon II, carved onto one of the sides of the capital

Above: this 1907 illustration of a Hathoric column at the Temple of Dendera demonstrates the type of paintwork that would have once adorned the Nicholson's Hathor.

Halftone photo-mechanical print, courtesy of the Wallach Division Picture Collection, the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

28 29 Anthony Gill investigates how six jars of fish specimens belonging to an enigmatic French diplomat, explorer and naturalist ended up in the Macleay Museum.

The French connection –

Born in London in 1802, the man who became known as Like many of his peers, Castelanau’s descriptions of new of these, the Macleay specimens are the only known types. François Louis Nompar de Caumont Laporte, comte de species were usually brief and often inaccurate. Due to For the remaining two species, one (Kurtus gulliveri, the Castelnau (hereafter Castelnau) was a French diplomat, museum practice of the time, the specimens he studied nursery fish) has type specimens scattered between the explorer and naturalist, known for his descriptions of new were widely dispersed, and these two things – brevity Macleay Museum, Australian Museum and Muséum national fish species. of description and scattering of the specimens – have d’Histoire naturelle. The other (Acanthoperca gulliveri, made identification of Castelnau’s species challenging. the giant glassfish) has types in the Macleay Museum and Using a variety of names throughout his life, Castelnau Association of the new species names he proposed with Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. studied natural science in Paris under two of the most any particular species is dependent on re-examination famous zoologists of his time, Georges Cuvier and of his original specimens (known as type specimens), but It’s not clear when or how the Norman River specimens Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Like many, the civil uprisings of his first they have to be found. ended up in the Macleay Museum, though it’s probable era forced Castelnau into a varied career but wherever he Sir William John Macleay acquired them in 1877, the went, he continued his passion for natural sciences. One such group of ‘lost’ specimens concerns a same year Castelnau donated his specimen of Kurtus to collection of fishes that Castelnau published on in 1878, the Australian Museum (documented in the museum’s Between 1843 and 1847 Castelnau was directed by shortly before his death. The specimens were collected archives). Sir William was editor of the Proceedings of Louis Phillipe I to make an expedition to South America. by TA Gulliver of Normanton, Queensland, and included the Linnean Society of NSW, where Castelnau published Following the 1848 French Revolution, he began a career 25 species of fishes from the Norman River. Castelnau several papers, including his Norman River paper. as a diplomat, serving as the French Consul in Salvador, described 12 of the species as new. Type specimens for According to Sir William’s diary, he corresponded with Brazil (1848–55), Cape of Good Hope (1856–58), and Siam nine of his species are currently regarded as missing. the Frenchman about Castelanau’s manuscripts and (Thailand) (1858–62). He was subsequently appointed Aside from one specimen in the Australian Museum, about loans of specimens and books. There is no explicit Consul-General for France in Melbourne (1863–77), where Sydney, specimens of the remaining three species mention, however, of the Norman River specimens. he remained in retirement until his death in 1880. are in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, apparently sent there with the bulk of Castelnau’s fish More details of the Macleay’s Norman River fishes, Castelnau published extensively on insects (particularly specimens following his death. including the impact of their discovery on current species beetles) and fishes, mostly based on specimens he names, will be revealed in a scientific paper by myself and acquired during his diplomatic service. Much of his work This much I had known before I came to the Macleay colleagues Drs Barry Russell and Gary Nelson. was taxonomic, and he was particularly active in describing Museum. So, I was surprised to find, in the collections, Later in the year, as part of the Nicholson Museum’s and naming new species. In all, he described nearly 470 six jars of fishes from the Norman River that matched upcoming Connections exhibition, the public will be able new fish species, based on specimens from South America, Castelnau’s 1878 specimens. These include type to view some of the rare specimens Castelnau described, southern Africa and Australia. specimens of five of Castelnau’s new species. For three previously thought lost but now found. Above: François Louis Nompar de Caumont Laporte, comte de Castelnau, image sourced from the National Library Anthony Gill is Curator, Natural History, of Australia, Trove Macleay Museum

Opposite page: the Macleay Museum’s type specimen of Kurtus gulliveri, NHF.394, photo by YK Tea.

30 31 Born in 1933, Marcucci is a prominent and enduring avant- Many of the figures are recognisable – Sharon Tate, Jane garde artist from Florence whose career spans 60 years. Fonda, Faye Dunaway – yet Marcucci does not deliberately Nove Stanze is a series of nine collages printed for the reveal their identities as celebrities. The highly stylised art publication Underground/A in Bologna, Italy. Nove images – cut from magazines and newspapers – display Stanze demonstrates Marcucci’s skill in treating word an ideal of femininity according to the media, while the and language as instruments that can be reevaluated and images of politicians are candid and unrefined. Marcucci’s transformed. This is a fundamental component of the L’assurdo (Absurd) for example, cuts a woman’s face in Poesia Visiva (Visual Poetry) movement, whose roots lie in half, purposefully removing her identity to mimic the Italian futurism and surrealism, and which was at its most consumption of women’s bodies in the media. Similarly, in active during the 1960–80s. Poesia Visiva recognises the Paradiso (Paradise), television personality Minnie Minoprio necessity of change and disorder in the technological age. is brutally cut in two, in a calculated move by Marcucci to demonstrate the objectification of women. In this case, Italy’s surrender from the Second World War consolidated Minoprio’s legs have become objects removed from the a move away from a Fascist and monarchical past as part control of the individual to whom they belong. of a series of radical cultural and sociopolitical changes. The establishment of the democratically elected Italian Nove Stanze also demonstrates acts of dissent against the Republic (1946), as well as a major economic boom in traditional standards of behaviour women were expected the 1950s, saw development in industry, technological to uphold in Italian society. For instance, La Fede (The progress and better living standards. After the ‘economic Faith) takes its imagery of Jane Fonda from the 1968 miracle’, 1960s Italy was beset by controversy over political science fiction film, Barbarella. The film, which eroticises values and wealth inequality between the north and south. Fonda’s character and features frequent sex scenes As a culture famed for tradition, Italy struggled with social with various sexual partners, transgressed traditional change that challenged predominately Roman Catholic values in Europe. Marcucci places Fonda alongside the conventions, particularly in response to the legalisation of words “Un modo d’acquisto sempre piu diffuso, valido, divorce and abortion, and the sexual revolution. logico e comod” [“An increasingly widespread, valid, logical, and comfortable way of buying”], referencing the Nove Stanze demonstrates the struggle of these cultural commercialisation of women’s bodies in the media and shifts through the lens of women’s rights and the entertainment industries. representation of women in the media and film industries. Each of the nine prints features a woman in the public Marcucci’s work continues to be relevant to the social and eye – celebrities, models, musicians – alongside a male political movements of the present. In the age of #MeToo The University Art Collection has a significant holding politician. Each print is accompanied by a collage of and Time’s Up, Marcucci shines a light on the long history of Italian Concrete and Visual Poetry, the largest of its Seeing poetry slogans, plays-on-words, and Italian phrases common of this struggle for individuality and control. type in Australia. Collated by the artists Giulia Niccolai in advertising during the 1970s. and Adriano Spatola, 160 artworks travelled from Italy to Eleanor Megna is a Master of Art Curating student – Australia for the exhibition Concreto e Visuale (Concrete at the University of Sydney. and Visual), held at the University Art Gallery in 1978. Eleanor Megna looks at Lucia After travelling to Melbourne, the collection was donated Marcucci's Nove Stanze, a to the Frederick May Foundation, the facilitator of the Opposite page: ER program with a long history of engagement with Italian Sampietro Editore, welcome addition to our art and culture. Frederick May was chair of Italian at Underground/A edition 6, 1972, collection of Italian Concrete the University of Sydney from 1962 until his early death containing Lucia Marcucci, Nove in 1976, and raised awareness of Italian language and Stanze, 1972 and Visual Poetry. literature, from Dante in the 13th century to the artists

of the contemporary neoavanguardia (New Vanguard). Left Lucia Marcucci, The foundation, established after his death, transferred Paradiso (Paradise) from Nove Stanze, the artworks to the Department of Italian Studies in 1972, letterpress print on card, 1999, and in 2008 the collection was acquired by the University Art University Art Collection. Collection UA2018.2

Lucia Marcucci’s Nove Stanze (Nine Rooms) (1972) has recently been formally acquired as part of the collection. This work – small enough to fit in a pocket – was initially identified as reference material.

32 33 Craig Barker considers the irony that one of the most unassuming objects in the Nicholson collection is from a highly significant building in Roman London.

Raising the roof –

A Roman roof tile, shaped in its The discovery of the site, in 1954, broken form like a slice of pizza, during the development of a modern is used in our education program, office block, Bucklersbury House, on a as part of the ‘hands-on’ study of war-damaged site in Walbrook Street, objects – many students handle created a media sensation. On the it every year, as they learn about final day of the excavations, led by WF Roman architecture. Grimes of the Museum of London, a The demolition of Bucklersbury marble bust of the god was found and House in 2010 gave the Museum The tile, along with a second, more photographed by the Sunday Times. of London a new opportunity to square-shaped fragmentary tile investigate the site. The decision was (NM70.10), comes from one of By that afternoon the ruins were made to incorporate the Mithraeum London’s most famous archaeological swarming with sightseers (30,000 into the new development in its A singular museum sites, which after half a century people visited the dig), questions were original location, and archaeologists of neglect has recently reopened, asked in cabinet and Prime Minister were amazed to find the original becoming a major tourist destination. Winston Churchill took a personal temple foundations had not been – interest. Despite this, the government bulldozed in 1954 as originally thought. The Mithraeum (Temple of Mithras) could not afford to preserve the ruins Paul Donnelly continues his series on visits to was constructed around AD 240 on of the temple in situ. The Nicholson's tile was donated in the banks of the Walbrook, one of 1970 by a primary school teacher, favourite museums, this time introducing the London’s mythical lost rivers. The A compromise was reached whereby Winifred Stivens of Woollahra. How Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris. mystery cult of the god Mithras the the developers would pay to move she came by the tile is not known, but bull-slayer performed initiation the remains to a more convenient as part of the Museum of London’s ceremonies, including animal location, 100 metres away. The newer investigation, the public was sacrifices, held in underground restored building was opened in asked for their memories of the temples called mithraea. Long after 1962 but without archaeological 1954 excavation. Many instead came Londinium became London, the supervision. Grimes later regretted, forward with antiquities: it turns temple was forgotten beneath the “the result is virtually meaningless as out workers at the site during the city’s streets. a reconstruction of a mithraeum.” relocation had often given artefacts to visitors as souvenirs.

Above: fragment of The Mithraeum, now back in its true a Roman roof tile, from the Mithraeum location, was reopened in November in London, donated by Winifred Stivens, 2017. Visitors can travel seven metres 1970, Nicholson beneath the new Lord Foster- Museum, NM70.9 designed building to see the temple, Left: the Mithraeum as well as a gallery displaying more in the 1950s than 600 of the 14,000 objects found

on the site. 14,002, if you count the Clockwise from tiles that made their way to Sydney. top left: the Sitting Room; African panthers in the Trophy Dr Craig Barker is Manager, Public Gallery; an Programs and Education, Sydney entrance into the museum; the 4. University Museums. Stag's Corner

34 35 Left: a bronze stag in the Antechamber Right: the Hounds' Antechamber features a ceramic sculpture by Elmar Trenkwalder

How do you take a difficult subject, distasteful to many, The overall spectacle is achieved through an and make it the focus of one of the must-see museums uncompromisingly designed experience, maximising the in a European city already filled with other museums and impact of a broad collection that spans antiquity to the attractions? This was the task set for the staff developing present day, including paintings, drawings, photographs, what was to become the Musée de la Chasse et de la sculptures, rugs, tapestries, ceramics, trophies, weapons, Nature (the Museum of Hunting and Nature). Remarkably, armour, furniture, video and taxidermy. The splendid they succeeded in creating one of the most intriguing and permanent and temporary displays are further enhanced beautiful museums in Paris. with startling artist interventions, and have featured elements designed by international artists of the calibre of This private museum was founded by François and Mark Dion, Daniel Horowitz and Jan Fabre. Jacqueline Sommer, who are described in the museum’s catalogue, A Singular Museum, as “active benefactors, The museum’s sophisticated, sumptuous displays and intrepid hunters, and ardent defenders of wildlife”. This interiors are laid out, as per the wishes of the benefactors, outwardly clear contradiction between hunting and as if it were the imaginary house of a hunter/collector. This appreciating wildlife is the leitmotif of the museum, almost believable subterfuge is enhanced by the museum’s which creates a tension and dynamism that somehow location within two adjoined and typical Parisian mansions never tips into the apologetic. Instead, the museum’s – the Hôtel particulier de Guénégaud (17th century) and content miraculously and seamlessly tackles the subject the Hôtel particulier de Mongelas, (18th century), in the head-on, sweeping up the visitor in a visual feast with heart of the Marais district. Opening in its current guise in surprises at every turn, including idiosyncratic objects 2007, the museum expresses two main themes at its core: and groups that leave you second-guessing what you are the relationship between humans and animals and the The Trophy Gallery, photograph by actually seeing. Where did they get that video of a unicorn changing status of animals over time, and the contribution Brett Hammond, standing in the rain? hunting has made to ‘our civilisation’, both as a means of Wikimedia Commons observing wildlife and as an inspiration for artists. —>

37 Making history

1. Children’s author Stella Tarakson recently launched her books at the Nicholson Museum’s ancient Greek myths school holiday program activity day.

2. The coffin of Mer- Neith-it-es returns to the Nicholson Museum, via the Quadrangle, after months of scientific investigation.

3. Justice Anthe 1. 2. Philippides and Professor Edith Hall in the Nicholson Museum following Professor Hall’s April 2018 public lecture.

4. University Museums staff recently made a site visit to the new F23 Administration building on campus. When complete, the new building will showcase key objects from across the collections.

4.

The rooms are themed to animals or combinations of animals, hunted for sport, feared (and inevitably at the same time admired), harnessed, reviled, or even mythical.

The single binding feature of the museum, in addition to 3. the grand domesticity, is an elaborate cabinet in each room where visitors can interrogate the room’s subject through discovering objects in drawers and pigeon holes or by peering into anachronistic brass binoculars to see video or graphics. From the hunted boar, stag, and woodcock to the press-ganged collaborators such as Please help us to conserve and grow falcons, hounds and horses – each journey is always a surprise and delight, and never predictable. Name: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Please accept my: Address: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� £ Cheque £ Money order £ Credit card While ostensibly hunting is what binds this museum, what (Please make payable to The University of Sydney) endures in my memory is an authentic admiration for ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Credit card details Phone: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� wildlife and a deep enduring connection with humanity. £ Visa £ MasterCard £ American Express £ Diners Club Email: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Clockwise from top left: The seductive combination of place, content, and Card No: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� taxidermy in the Trophy interpretation makes this a special experience for the Gallery; a crossbow in the Please accept my gift of: Cardholder’s name: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� visitor. For me, as a lover of ornithology, I was particularly Weapons Gallery; detail of £ $50 £ $100 £ $250 £ Other $ ��������������������������������������������������������� archival photos and letters Company name (if using a corporate card) ������������������������������������������������������� taken with the extensive exploration of birdlife and yet, (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) in the Sommer Cabin (A receipt will be issued in the name of the cardholder) just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the Bird Expiry:...... Signature: ��������������������������������������������������������������������� Car sculpture by Vincent Dubourg (2006) came into view, I would like to allocate my donation to: £ Macleay Collection £ Acquisitions £ Please send me information about how I can remember the a rusted ovoid hulk of a late 1950s BMW Isetta serving as £ Nicholson Collection £ Conservation University of Sydney in my will. the home of a nest. That’s the Musée de la Chasse et de la £ University Art Collection £ Director’s priorities £ I confirm that I have included the University of Sydney in my will. Nature – surprising, quirky, and a total delight.

Advancement Services ABN 15 211 513 464 The information you provide on this form is collected by the University of Sydney to Dr Paul Donnelly is Associate Director, Level 7, Jane Foss Russell Building (G02) CRICOS 00026A maintain contact and keep you up to date with information about the University, its services, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia CFN 10369 events and achievements. It may be passed onto groups affiliated with the University, such Content for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. as alumni organisations and foundations (local and overseas), Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness, +61 2 8627 8807 and residential colleges. Your name may be published in the annual honour roll. If you wish +61 2 8627 8819 (fax) to remain anonymous or do not wish to receive information, please contact Advancement [email protected] Services via fax (+61 2 8627 8819) or email ([email protected]). The University sydney.edu.au/museums abides by the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998. 38 Find your muse at Current exhibitions Sydney University Museums –

Nicholson Museum Whether you want to view an exhibition or attend a September 2018 October 2018 talk, we have plenty on offer. –– Alpha and Omega: tales of transformation, until Friday 28 Saturday 1 September, 12.30–1.30pm Saturday 6 October, 2–3pm September 2018 Greek Vases: Myth and Meaning After Alexander: new For more information and to view the latest timetable, –– The sky and the sea: Dr Stavros Paspalas, Australian perspectives on Classical and ancient Cypriot art visit sydney.edu.au/museums and click on ‘What’s on’. Archaeological Institute at Athens, Late Antique Pella in Jordan* –– Lego Pompeii Unless otherwise stated, all events take place at the the Nicholson Museum and the Dr Stephen Bourke, –– Death Magic Australian Archaeological Institute University of Sydney Nicholson Museum. –– Memento: remembering at Athens present a free tour of the Cost: free Roman lives Nicholson Museum’s collection of Tuesday 9 October, 10am–4pm –– Tombs Tells and Temples: Free Nicholson Museum tours Athenian vases. School holiday activity day: excavating the Near East Join Nicholson Museum staff every Monday from 3.30–4.30pm Cost: free Fantastic beasts in the museum –– Actors, Athletes and Academics: for a collection tour with a different focus each week. life in ancient Greece Saturday 1 September, 2–3pm Activities for kids aged 5-12 Cost: free –– Sustaining the Seas, until Life and death on the coast of the throughout the day. Friday 13 July 2018 Atacama Desert, northern Chile* Cost: free –– The Art of Storytelling, from Dr Chris Carter, Academy Travel Wednesday 25 July 2018 July 2018 Cost: free Wednesday 17 October, 6 for 6.30pm Curious Connections: –– Curious Connections, from Monday 15 October 2018 – Wednesday 12 September, 6 for intimate linkages between objects in the Nicholson Museum Friday 6 July, 6pm Tuesday 10 July, 10am–4pm August 2018 6.30pm Unless noted, all Nicholson Museum and objects beyond Madeleine Colani: pioneer of the School holiday activity day: Alexander’s Lost World: exhibitions are ongoing. Plain of Jars of Laos and doyenne NAIDOC Week Wednesday 1 August, 6 for 6.30pm The Oxus Civilisations and Dr Jamie Fraser, Nicholson Museum of Southeast Asia’s prehistory Activities for kids aged 5–12 Decline and Fall: reflections the origins of Zoroastrians Lecture and exhibition opening. Thailand-based scholar Dr Lia throughout the day. on Rome and the USA David Adams Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Fisher Library Genovese will speak on the work of Cost: free Rt Hon Bob Carr, former NSW Premier Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum and their guests, Sydney’s women in the field: this intrepid 1920s archaeologist of Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the Nicholson Museum and their guests, $10 for students. Includes light Phyllis Kaberry and the Abelam, French colonial Asia. Thursday 12 July, 10am–12pm Nicholson Museum and their guests, $10 for students. Includes light refreshments. commemorates the UNESCO Cost: free School holiday art workshop: $10 for students. Includes light refreshments. Memory of the World listing of materials in the Macleay Containers of History refreshments. and University Archives, Saturday 7 July, 2–3pm Artist Sarah Goffman leads a creative until 31 August 2018. The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera: workshop for children aged 5–15. Saturday 4 August, 12.30–1.30pm archaeology, science and myth* Cost: free Greek Vases: Myth and Meaning Dr Kathryn Eriksson Dr Stavros Paspalas, Australian Cost: free Thursday 19 July, 10am–4pm Archaeological Institute at Athens, Follow us on Twitter at School holiday activity day: the Nicholson Museum and the twitter.com/sydneyunimuseum Monday 9 July, 2–3.30pm Roman armour Australian Archaeological Institute or find us on Facebook Free Indigenous heritage tour Activities for kids aged 5–12 at Athens present a free tour of the by searching for ‘Sydney Join Jimmy Smith as he guides us throughout the day. Nicholson Museum’s collection of University Museums’. across the campus, exploring the Cost: free Athenian vases. remarkable Indigenous history of the Cost: free All details are correct at location and stories of the University’s Tuesday 24 July, 6 for 6.30pm the time of publication, however, events may change historic relationship with community. An overview of Greek and Roman Saturday 4 August, 2–3pm due to circumstances To make a booking, email: beyond our control. Please sculpture in the Nicholson Museum Japanese Gardens* visit our website for [email protected] Professor Hans Goette, German Dr Kathleen Olive, Academy Travel up‑to‑date information: sydney.edu.au/museums Cost: free Archaeological Institute Cost: free Above: Typewriter with double Cost: $40, $30 for Friends of the * The 2018 If you wish to contact Postcards from the keyboard, 1950s, manufactured the Macleay Museum, the Above: skull and antlers of by Imperial Typewriter Co. Ltd, Nicholson Museum and their guests, O. Hemionus sitkensis, Merriam Past free Saturday Nicholson Museum or the lecture series Leicester and Hull, England University Art Gallery, $10 for students. Includes light 1898, purchased from Wards transferred from the Faculty of Rochester before 1900, Macleay is sponsored by please see inside front Academy Travel. Engineering, Macleay Museum, cover for our details. refreshments. Museum, NHM.19 SC2013.1

40 41 What will your legacy do?

From securing our future to protecting our past, the University is tackling many global challenges every day.

By leaving a bequest, you can make your passion your legacy.

Call our bequest team on +61 2 8019 7958.